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November 5, 2004/Cheshvan 21 5765, Vol. 57, No. 10
Learn what Iraq needs, Mideast expert says
MICHAEL MIKLOFSKY
Staff Writer
What do Americans owe Iraq?
Noah Feldman, a New York University School of Law professor who helped outline a plan for democracy in Iraq, spoke Oct. 27 at the Arizona State University College of Law about what is needed to civilize the country.
Feldman served as senior adviser for constitutional law in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war Iraq - among his duties was helping to frame Iraq's interim constitution. He recently authored "What We Owe Iraq" (Princeton Uni-versity Press, $19.95 hard-cover).
Feldman described the situation in Iraq by pointing out the war was under-resourced and that in forming a new government, leaders would need to consider the impact of religion on the region. Most Iraqi citizens follow the teachings of Islam.
The professor said one crucial mistake made during the war was removing the top layer of government without providing enough troops to secure peace in the region. This, he said, has led to three insurgent groups gaining power in the region.
He defined the first group as Sunni Muslim clerics led by Muktadr al-Sadr, who climbed the group's hierarchy to assume his position. Mostly young, poor and uneducated Shi'ite Muslims have been attracted to this group, which is outraged by the U.S. in-vasion.
The next group is made up of ethnic Sunni Arab and Iraqi citizens who think the United States has invaded to attack them and liberate Shi'ites and Kurds from Sunni control.
This second group holds the belief that they are leading an obligatory jihad to defend themselves.
The final group consists of Sunni Arabs from outside Iraq who have infiltrated the country because of borders made permeable after the U.S. -led war began. This group seeks to bring down the United States in the same fashion that they believe they took down the Soviet Union and by any means necessary.
The way to get beyond the conflict and violence, Feldman suggested, is to realize that "we (Americans) have a moral duty to them to govern in their interests."
Among the more than 300 attendees at the lecture was Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
"He really made it clear that the solution to terrorism and the solution to the violence in Iraq and the loss of life will be a liberation of Islam," Jasser said.
Joel Gereboff, chairman of ASU's Religious Studies Department and a member of the center's executive com-mittee said that Feldman "did an excellent job of showing some of the com-plexity, of laying out in a clear manner some of the diverse constituencies and did a very nice job of identifying the types of religious moti-vations, the way in which religion enters into their thinking."
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